Immunohistochemical Assessment of Mast Cells and Small Blood Vessels in Dentigerous Cyst, Odontogenic Keratocyst, and Periapical Cyst

The aim of this study was to verify the density of mast cells (MCs) and microvessels in odontogenic cysts. Furthermore, the correlation between MCs and microvessels was evaluated to assess the contribution of MCs to angiogenesis and growth of odontogenic cysts. This approach may be a basis for the development of future pharmaceuticals addressed to MCs performance to manage odontogenic cysts. To our knowledge, no study investigating the correlation between MCs and microvessels has been performed to date. 60 cases of odontogenic cysts consisting of 20 radicular cysts (RCs), 20 odontogenic keratocysts (OKCs) and 20 dentigerous cysts (DCs) were included in this study. Five high power fields in superficial connective tissue and five high power fields in deep connective tissue were counted for each sample. Moreover, a total mean of ten fields was calculated. RC showed the highest mean numbers of MCs and microvessels (p